The Establishment Of A World-Class Medical, Testing And Health Screening Facility

Date: April 20, 2022

Source: Forbes

 

The Beximco Group plays a key role in supporting the Construction, Marine and Process (CMP) sectors in Singapore.

Covid-19 has had and continues to have a devastating impact on the livelihoods of many Bangladeshi workers seeking overseas employment.

In Singapore, the pandemic significantly reduced access to the workforce serving key labor-intensive sectors such as Construction, Marine and Process (CMP) that rely heavily on Bangladeshi migrant workers.

To enable them to safely travel to Singapore while simultaneously mitigating public health risks, an industry-led partnership between Bangladesh’s Beximco Group as well as Novus Clinical Research Services Ltd and Singapore’s Fullerton Health Group was formed in July 2021 to build Novus TQF, a dedicated medical testing and quarantine facility in Dhaka.

The stand-alone facility provides the highest standards of accommodation and medical quarantine, incorporating strict Infection control protocols and rigorous testing and screening regimes that adhere to all of Singapore’s relevant Ministry of Health requirements.

This end-to-end process and effective “safety bubble” has allowed Covid-Negative workers to travel safely from the facility to Singapore through dedicated transportation and airport clearance channels.

The Novus TQF is designed to meet the needs of the city-state’s employers in a scalable, reliable and sustainable manner. It is in a suburb of Dhaka, just 12 kilometers from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, which makes it convenient for workers to transfer on the day of their flight to the airport.

Approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Bangladeshi workers arrived in Singapore annually before the pandemic. It dropped to almost zero during the outbreak. Currently, more than 7,000 workers have successfully gone through the program, and it continues to have a significant impact on the overall wellbeing and livelihood of the workers, as well as provides them with the opportunity to work in Singapore.

“We are extremely proud to have developed a best-in-class facility in partnership with Fullerton Health Group and Novus,” says Shayan F Rahman, Principal and Advisor to the Board, Beximco Group. “This Pre-Departure Preparatory Program has not only ensured the safe travel and entry of workers from Bangladesh to Singapore, but it has also helped to alleviate the disruption of key infrastructure and strategic projects in Singapore.”